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THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

1858-1919 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 

OF 

HONORABLE CHARLES E. HUGHES 



ADDRESS OF 
HONORABLE CHARLES E! HUGHES 




AT THE 



Memorial Service 



IN HONOR OF 



THEODORE Roosevelt 

AT 

THE REPUBLICAN CLUB 
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY THE NINTH 

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN 



/^/f 



•^1 



31 

MAR 7 1946 
•wtal R«Mrt MvUtai 
fteLknvyil 



Address of Honorable Charles E. Hughes at the Memorial Service 

in Honor of Theodore Roosevelt, at the Republican Club of 

The City of New York on Sunday, February pth, ipip. 

The heroes of democracy are the springs of its life; its 
sources of vigor and confidence. We increasingly realize in 
the midst of our abounding activities, that it is the man and 
not the mechanism that counts, and that the hosts of the 
industrious, the efficient, and the just must depend for their 
triumphs on the worth and strength of leadership. We are 
not paying tribute to the distinction conferred by office, even 
the highest office ; nor are we commemorating mere achieve- 
ments although extraordinary and varied. Our tribute is of 
unstinted admiration and deep affection for one who was 
great in office, but even greater out of office, whose unfailing 
faith, courage and energy caused personality to echpse achieve- 
ment ; whose constant industry and self -discipline, whose 
sound democratic instinct, elemental virtues and wholesome 
living, whose restless, alert and indomitable spirit, impatient 
at all obstacles, made him more than any other the represen- 
tative of free America, — the typical American not only of the 
nineteenth century, but of the twentieth, — the embodiment of 
patriotic ardor, of lofty ideals, of practical sense and invin- 
cible determination. Deeply conscious of the irreparable loss 
of his immediate leadership, we turn to consider the fructify- 
ing influence of a life which has no parallel in our annals. 
"He is great," says Emerson, "who is what he is from nature, 
and who never reminds us of others." 

The life of Theodore Roosevelt presents strange contrasts 
in its constant escape from the limitations of environment. 
He was city bred, but he became a naturalist of eminence and 
a hunter of no mean prowess. He was reared in the most ex- 
clusive circles of the East, but he breathed the free spirit of 
the Western plains. He was educated in private schools, and 
his early training was amid cultural surroundings tending 
to separate him from the masses, but he was closer to the 
thought of the plain people than any leader in America. As 
a boy, he was of delicate physique, but by the careful disci- 
pline of years he made himself an athlete. He spent about 

f3] 



two-thirds of his life in pubHc office, but never was any one 
less official or less mastered by routine. He was engrossed 
with the grave practical concerns of his time, but he was 
one of its most prolific authors. He was in politics from the 
beginning- of his career, but he was a master and not a servant 
of the political order. In every activity, the spirit of Theodore 
Roosevelt escaped the limitations of all associations and tra- 
ditions and emerged dominating, triumphant, and he thus 
represents to us neither locality nor vocation, — not the author, 
or the traveller, or the naturalist, not the political leader or 
the officer, not even the statesman or the President, but the 
man — who in his human worth and virile personality tran- 
scended all distinctions of place and circumstance, whose de- 
fects were only the shadows which made his virtues stand out 
the more impressively, and whose memory will ever remain 
an abiding inspiration. 

Theodore Roosevelt was born in the City of New York 
on October 27, 1858, — the descendant of the Roosevelt who 
came to New Amsterdam in the year 1644. From that year, 
as Colonel Roosevelt has told us, for the next seven genera- 
tions, from father to son, each of his line was born on Man- 
hattan Island. While he thus represented the best Knicker- 
bocker tradition, his grandmother's ancestors were of those 
who had settled in Pennsylvania with William Penn and his 
mother's family were of Georgia and mainly of Scotch de- 
scent. He was a scion of the sturdiest and of the canniest 
stock, whose Americanism began with the making of America 
itself. While his father's family went back to the early days 
of the Dutch settlement of New York, his mother's great- 
grandfather was the revolutionary "president" of Georgia. 

As a boy, Theodore Roosevelt had unusual advantages. 
Well born, of a family in comfortable circumstances, every 
educational opportunity was open to him. He was taken on a 
trip to Europe when ten years old. On a second trip, at the 
age of fourteen, he visited Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece and 
Constantinople, and spent a Summer in Dresden. After study- 
ing in one of the best schools of the day, he entered Harvard 
College in 1876, and graduated with good, but not exceptional, 
rank, in 1880. There were thousands of young men of 
similar advantages in the seventies and eighties, but there was 
but one Theodore Roosevelt- Ingersoll said that the col- 

[4] 



lege, as he knew it, was a place where pebbles were polished 
and diamonds were dimmed. Nothing could dim this diamond ; 
and in the record of subsequent achievement it is not the 
training of school or university, or the advantage of family 
or fortune, that yields the secret of success, but these are 
almost forgotten in the amazing performance which was the 
result of individual avidity, insatiable curiosity, inexhaustible 
vigor and remorseless self-discipline. Where others would 
have been subdued to form, and sterilized by convention, he 
was individual, — a daily conqueror in some new realm self- 
sought. 

He remarks that as a little boy he started on his career 
as a zoologist at a market on Broadway, where he saw a dead 
seal, which filled him "with every possible feeling of romance 
and adventure." Such was the message of a dead seal to this 
live Roosevelt. His boyhood summers in the country were 
excursions in natural history, and what he called the "Roose- 
velt Museum of Natural History," which started with the 
seal's skull, was later enriched by the ornithological specimens 
gathered by the boy naturalist. In college, his interests were 
chiefly scientific, and he had then no thought of going into 
public life. On leaving college, he undertook to study law, 
but he had little inclination in that direction. In a little over 
a year he was elected to the Legislature of New York and 
took his seat as its youngest member. And this affords a 
ready illustration of the way in which opportunity greeted 
this young American as he looked out on life eager to know 
and to serve. 

It is true that he had one exceptional advantage in that it 
was not necessary for him to devote himself to money-making. 
With a modest competency, he could choose his work, not 
under the pressure of the necessity of earning his support, 
but with the desire to make the best use of his talents. The 
benefit of this position of independence he freely gave to his 
country. He never thought of using it for selfish protection ; 
he consumed no part of his extraordinary energies in frivolous 
or unworthy pursuits ; he courted neither ease nor luxury ; and 
he despised dilettantism. He needed no spur of necessity; his 
freedom gave rein to the noblest ambition. 

His course, with respect to politics, was characteristic. 
Nothing to him was remote or alien ; whatever he did he must 

[5l 



do with all his might. We commonly think of his spontaneity, 
his impulsiveness. The quick play of his critical instinct, and 
his readiness to deal with new situations, have appealed to 
the public imagination. We are apt to think less of his delib- 
eration, his careful choice of method, and the steady purpose 
of years with which he pursued his aim. Thus, as a boy, 
chagrined at his lack of physical strength as compared with 
that of his associates, he began a careful training in boxing, 
and though for years he made scarcely any progress, being, 
as he says, "a slow and awkward pupil," he kept at it until he 
attained proficiency. He mastered the equestrian art with 
equal deliberateness and with equal difficulty. With all his 
impulsiveness and his charm of spontaneity he was nothing if 
not methodical and painstaking. 

He approached politics in the deliberate and reso- 
lute manner in which he developed his body and improved 
his mind. Anxious to do his full duty as a citizen, and 
belonging by virtue of his antecedents and convictions to the 
Republican Party, he at once planned to be an efficient mem- 
ber of that party. This he did not undertake to do by sitting 
in Fifth Avenue clubs during his leisure hours, and complain- 
mg of machine methods, of which at that time unhappily 
there was much to complain, or bewailing the little oppor- 
tunity in Manhattan for a well-to-do young Harvard grad- 
uate of polite breeding. On the contrary, he inquired as to 
the whereabouts of the local Republican Association and the 
means of joining. His elders, men of business and social 
standing, scoffed at the young enthusiast. Those in active 
politics, he was advised, were not of his sort. But he had 
the Roosevelt idea. He was going to find out; he would take 
his part in the "rough and tumble." He proposed to be an 
American, not only in privilege but in complete performance 
of duty, and as a citizen in democracy he intended, as he put it, 
to be one of the "governing class." And, so, to the young 
Roosevelt, eager to do his part, opportunity came at once 
with outstretched hand. 

His career in the legislature lasted three years. It was 
a career of distinction and gave rich promise. In the first 
year, he rose to leadership ; in the second year, when the 
Republicans were in the minority, he was minority candi- 
date for speaker of the Assembly ; in the third year, with the 

[6] 



Republicans in control, he sought the speakership, and al- 
though he was defeated, the fight strengthened him. He 
was Chairman of a committee investigating conditions in the 
City of New York. And thus at the age of twenty-five he 
had won a notable place. The way in which he won it was 
more significant than the success itself. He brought to the 
stale atmosphere of politics the invigorating breeze of a 
worth-while idealism. He owed his success neither to artifice 
nor to demagogical appeal. At that time he was not even an 
eft"ective speaker. He had then neither grace of manner nor 
skill in elocution. His was the appeal of courage, of social 
sympathy, of an honest desire to secure practicable measures 
of improvement. In every session, he had championed good 
causes and fought every sinister design. To young men he 
incarnated the hope of a better day. 

It was in those early and impressionable years that he 
formed the basic principles of his political philosophy. He 
found that there were corrupt men in the legislature, but 
that there were far more who were honest, and he concluded 
that "if it were possible to get an issue of right and wrong 
vividly and unmistakably before them in a way that would 
arrest the attention of their constituents, we could count on 
the triumph of the right." It was to present his issue of 
right and wrong, as he saw it, vividly and unmistakably that 
was his life work. He also at once appreciated the worth of 
character and its indispensability as a condition of public 
service. It was obvious to him, in his own words, "that no 
man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can 
act with rugged independence in serious crisis, or strike at 
great abuses, or aflford to make powerful and unscrupulous 
foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character." 
But this essential character was to him not an end, but a 
means, a qualification for the battle in which he delighted. 
He demanded initiative as well as character. He bitterly 
scorned parlor reformers, the apostles of class, and all critics 
who lacked the "sinewy power to do." He left the legislature 
without illusions, without disdain, and without any relaxa- 
tion of purpose. He was convinced that it was his business 
to combine "decency and efficiency," to be "a thoroughly prac- 
tical man of high ideals and to do his best to reduce his ideals 
to actual practice." 

[7] 



It was at the very beginning of ^ ic career that 

Theodore Roosevelt showed his deep interest in social better- 
ment — in the improvement of conditions of living. He was 
never interested in the mere routine of government. His in- 
terest was in society, in human effort, in the opportunities of 
men — the workers — and in the thwarting of the pernicious 
practices and evil influences which made a mockery of the 
democratic hope. He was on a committee to investigate con- 
ditions in the tenement houses, and thus he became intimate- 
ly acquainted with them. It was natural that with this 
knowledge he should have earnestly pressed the bill to pro- 
hibit the making of cigars in tenement houses. It is a keen 
pleasure to dwell on the picture of the youthful Roosevelt as 
he appeared before Governor Grover Cleveland, acting as he 
says "as spokesman for the battered, undersized foreigners 
who represented the Union and the workers," and urging the 
Governor to sign this bill. The bill was signed, and in the 
subsequent fate of this measure — representing one of his 
earliest efforts at social improvement — we find an explanation 
of his attitude with respect to the function of the courts. He 
felt deeply that he knezv the conditions which he sought to 
have remedied and that the Court of Appeals, in its decision 
declaring this act of the legislature invalid (in the Jacobs 
case), proceeded without proper knowledge of these con- 
ditions. We may be profoundly convinced that in later years 
he mistook the remedy in advocating what he described as 
the recall of judicial decisions, without denying the justice of 
his criticism of the particular decision. Perhaps he never 
fully realized how few decisions of this sort there really were 
and how numerous were those sustaining legislative action 
within the broad field of legislative discretion relating to 
health, safety, morals and the common welfare. The error 
lay not in the principle, but in the particular application. 
The principle was the right of constitutional protection 
against arbitrary interference with personal liberty, — a prin- 
ciple still of vital importance, but calling for the most careful 
application lest ignorance of the facts of life should wrongly 
impute the arbitrary quality to legislation. It was this ignor- 
ance of facts which drew his scornful and bitter criticism. 
Fortunately, the remedy is being found in a wider knowledge, 
a more careful presentation of cases, and a more discriminat- 

[8] 



ing regard foi. nider our system, is the legislative as 

distinguished from the judicial function. But there is no 
doubt of the lasting influence of the Tenement Cigar case on 
the opinions of Theodore Roosevelt. It rose as a monument 
of error and so close was it to his own early experience that 
it stood in the way of that comprehensive survey which was 
necessary to a correct appraisement of the work of the courts. 

In 1884, despite his youth, his political reputation was 
recognized by his appointment as one of the delegates-at- 
large from New York to the Republican National Convention, 
where he fought for the nomination of George F. Edmunds. 
"Why," said George William Curtis, "he is just out of school 
almost, yet he is a force to be reckoned with in New York. 
Later, the Nation will be criticizing or praising him." Twen- 
ty-five years later at his last Cabinet dinner, I had the pleas- 
ure of hearing him review in an intimate way some of the 
chief events in his political career, and it was evident that 
the contest in the convention of 1884 was one of the out- 
standing facts in his memory. He was then put to a decisive 
test. He was beaten, but he believed in party and declined 
to oppose the party choice. He regarded the nomination of 
Mr. Blaine as won in a fair and above-board fashion, because 
the rank and file of the party stood back of him. To the in- 
tense disappointment of many of his intimates, he publicly 
announced his loyalty to the ticket. "A man," said he, "cannot 
act both without and within the party; he can do either, 
but he can not possibly do both. * * * It is impossible to 
combine the functions of a guerilla chief with those of a 
colonel in the regular army. One has greater independence 
of action, the other is able to make whatever action he does 
take vastly more effective * * * I am by inheritance and by 
education a Republican ; whatever good I have been able to 
accomplish in public life has been accomplished through the 
Republican Party ; I have acted with it in the past and wish 
to act wath it in the future." 

Two years later, he was the Republican candidate for 
Mayor of the City of New York. It was a forlorn hope, in 
a triangular contest, against Henry George and Abram S. 
Hewitt, but I well remember the enthusiastic support he 
received from young Republicans, who looked upon him not 
only as a leader of rare capacity but as a party liberator. 

[9] 



With his defeat, he seemed to vanish from public life; but 
he was only in training for larger service. He had already 
(three years before) taken two ranches on the Little Missouri, 
and with the toil and hardship of the prairie, in com- 
pany with the "hardy and self-reliant" who "with bronzed 
set faces and keen eyes that look all the world straight in the 
face without tiinching," there was developed the Roosevelt 
that we knew in later years, of physical strength apparently 
inexhaustible, the hero of adventure, the idol of the cowboy, 
the man who knew most intimately our America in the mak- 
ing, the historian of the "Winning of the West," — who car- 
ried with him through life the friendship of those who de- 
spised all the superficialities and pretenses of the polite world 
and to whom the courage and boldness of the frontier formed 
the essential password to esteem — the man who in the most 
crowded hours of official life, with its inordinate activity, 
never lost the sense of the "immensity and mystery of the 
wilderness" and of the "silences that brood in its still depths." 

The rough life on the plains, with its emphasis on phy- 
sical demands, instead of relaxing, quickened his intellectual 
efforts. His literary ambition was apparent even in college 
days, and before these were over he had written one or two 
chapters of his book on the "Naval War of 1812." This book, 
still an authority, was published in 1882. It was followed, in 
1886, by "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman"; in 1887, by the 
"Life of Thomas Hart Benton"; in 1888, by the "Life of 
Gouverneur Morris" and "Ranch Life and Hunting Trails," 
and "Essays on Practical Politics." These were the contri- 
butions of Roosevelt, the ranchman, to history and literature. 

It was with this record that he was appointed Civil 
Service Commissioner by President Harrison in 1889, and it 
would have been difficult to select a place better suited for 
the interment of political ambition. The work was in the last 
degree unpopular with those who were supposed to make 
and unmake political fortunes. Theodore Roosevelt did not 
shrink from it. He did not try to curry favor; he did not 
emasculate the new department in order to win his way to 
political preferment. 

He was not a mere administrator, but a fighter for proper 
standards of administration. In his fight for Civil Service 
Reform, he was the object of ridicule and bitter attack, but 

[lo] 



he, on his part, gave no quarter. He was not averse, though 
holding "a minor and rather non-descript office," to taking a 
"Cabinet officer by the neck and exposing him to the amused 
contempt of all honest Americans." When it w^as said that 
his penmanship would disqualify him at his own examinations 
for competitive positions, he replied that he might not be 
eligible for a clerkship, but he thought he was a good Com- 
missioner, and that under the old system he might have 
secured the clerkship for which he was manifestly unfitted. 
He rejoiced in his ability to do justice, and, amid the difficul- 
ties of a subordinate position, he stood for the square deal. 
This was his platform : "We propose that no incumbent shall 
be dismissed from the service unless he proves untrustworthy 
or incompetent and that none not specially qualified for the 
duties of the position shall be appointed. These two state- 
ments we consider eminently practical and American in prin- 
ciple." Answering an attack from a Southern Congressman 
as to the appointment of negroes, he said : "As to this, I have 
to say that so long as the present Commissioners continue 
their official existence they will not make, and so far as in 
their power lies, will refuse to allow others to make any 
discrimination whatsoever for or against any man because 
of his color, any more than because of his politics or religion." 

What was of greater value to the country than his spe- 
cific efforts in this important field, was the intimate knowl- 
edge the future leader obtained of all the departments of 
government. He knew the government as well as he knew 
the prairie. And this long training is largely the explanation 
of his later rapidity of decision in all matters relating to 
departmental work. In the midst of the militant efforts of 
this Civil Service reformer, which lasted six years, and along 
with the numerous volumes of official reports, he continued 
to maintain his literary productivity. Between 1888 and 1895 
(inclusive) he published six books, of which four related to 
hunting, another was a history of New York City and the 
remaining one was "Hero Tales from American History," of 
which Henry Cabot Lodge was a joint author. It was in 
this period, in the main, that he wrote the "Winning of the 
West," an important work of exceptional value, which ap- 
peared in the year 1896. 

It was in the Spring of 1895, that he was called to a task 



even less promising than his civil service commissionership 
• — that of President of the New York Police Board. The 
Lexow Committee had caused a spasm of municipal reform 
and Mayor Strong's administration was the result. The dis- 
closure of police corruption and blackmail created a demand 
for the most vigorous treatment and the Mayor turned to 
Roosevelt, buried in his Washington department. Nine years 
had passed since his defeat for the mayoralty, and Roosevelt 
had apparently failed to fulfill the promise of the early As- 
sembly days. To New York, swift to forget, his return 
seemed like a resurrection. Roosevelt had been offered by 
Mayor Strong the Street Cleaning Department, but he de- 
clined, as he thought he had no special fitness for that sort 
of cleansing work. To him, the Police Department seemed a 
simple task. It merely called, as he viewed it, for adminis- 
tration "with entire disregard of partisan politics and only 
from the standpoint of a good citizen interested in promoting 
the welfare of all good citizens." He came to recognize, 
however, that the then government of the Police Depart- 
ment — a bi-partisan board of four Commissioners — was so 
devised as to render it difficult to accomplish anything good, 
while "the field for intrigue and conspiracy was limitless." 
To his efforts there was every sort of opposition ; his enemies 
were legion. You doubtless remember that period when 
street vendors hawked about the caricatures of the Roosevelt 
visage, — when as he said "every discredited politician, every 
sensational newspaper, every timid fool who could be scared 
by clamor, was against us." But the improvement in the 
force was plain. Blackmail was rooted out; crime was 
checked; the law w.as respected; what was even more, the 
force achieved its own self-respect. "The improvement in 
its efficiency went hand in hand with the improvement in its 
honesty." His work on the Health Board — of which he was 
a member by virtue of his police office — was no less impor- 
tant. Night after night he walked the tenement house dis- 
tricts seeking to relieve distress, and his passion for social 
helpfulness was exhibited in countless ways. The threats and 
machinations of his enemies had no terrors for him. He 
proposed to stop law-breaking and to make decent living pos- 
sible so far as it lay in his power. In all his dealings with 
the notorious evils which afflict our crowded cities, he repre- 

[12] 



sented practical sense, a stern morality, and an implacable 
demand for official honesty. When we sum up our municipal 
needs, we know how useless it is to put our trust in charters 
or in bureaus of research, in Albany rule or in home rule. 
There is one everlasting need — for men like Roosevelt. With 
such men, municipal government may be the crowning tri- 
umph of democracy; without the energy, character, sagacity 
and firmness of such men, we walk in shame. Well might 
E. L. Godkin, who was not given to praise, say to Roosevelt 
that in the Police Department he was doing "the greatest 
work of which any American was capable" and "was exhibit- 
ing to the young men of the country the spectacle of a very 
important office administered by a man of high character 
in the most efficient way amid a thousand difficulties." 

In April, 1897, he was called to a new post, that of Assis- 
tant Secretary of the Navy. The Cuban situation was be- 
coming acute. The new Assistant Secretary was an apostle 
of preparedness; he became convinced that war would come, 
and he did everything he could to get ready. It was our 
duty, he believed, "even more from the standpoint of national 
honor than from the standpoint of national interest, to stop 
the devastation and destruction in Cuba." The event showed 
that he was right. Meanwhile, as he described the situation, 
"too many of our politicians, especially in Congress, found 
that the cheap and easy thing to do was to please the foolish 
peace people by keeping us weak, and to please the foolish 
violent people by passing denunciatory resolutions' about 
international matters — resolutions which would have been 
improper even if we had been strong." It was in this period 
that he developed, to its full intensity, his antipathy to the 
"mollycoddle." He used his influence unceasingly to strength- 
en our naval power. Back of the later victory at Manila was 
his foresight, for it was largely through his effort that George 
Dewey, as the ideal man for the place, was put in command 
of the Asiatic squadron. Jacob Riis tells us of the day when 
Roosevelt and he, with the former's bicycle between them, 
were walking down an avenue in Washington discussing 
Dewey. "Dewey," said Roosevelt, "is the man for the place. 
He has a lion heart." It was on February 25, 1898, that the 
Assistant Secretary sent this cable message: 

[13] 



Washington, February 25, '98. 
"Dewey, Hong Kong. 

Order the squadron, except the Monocacy, to Hong 
Kong. Keep full of coal. In the event of declaration of 
war Spain, your duty will be to see that the Spanish squadron 
does not leave the Asiatic coast, and then offensive operations 
in Philippine Islands. Keep Olympia until further orders. 

Roosevelt." 

It is also interesting now to note how Theodore Roose- 
velt prized the advice of another efficient officer. No one, he 
tells us, so fully realized how backward our Navy was in 
marksmanship as did the naval attache at Paris, the then Lieu- 
tenant Sims — now Vice-Admiral Sims in command of the opera- 
tions of the United States Navy in its operations with the 
Grand Fleet. The Assistant Secretary was much impressed 
by the letters of Lieutenant Sims, and it was to him that 
subsequently President Roosevelt gave the lead in intro- 
ducing an improved system, and to him, said Mr. Roosevelt 
in 1913, " more than to any other one man was due the aston- 
ishing progress of our fleet which made the fleet, gun for gun, 
at least three times as effective in point of fighting efficiency 
in 1908 as it was in 1902." 

But administration, either in preparation for war or in 
conducting war, was not enough for Theodore Roosevelt. 
He abhorred an unjust war, but he was a born fighter. To 
him the war was a call of the supreme duty which could not 
be denied. As he has said, the Spanish War was not much 
of a war, but "it was all the war there was," and he longed 
to be in it. His intimate friend, then Army Surgeon Leonard 
Wood, also a born soldier, — trained in arduous campaigns in 
the West — had the same feeling. At Roosevelt's request, in 
May, 1898, Wood was made Colonel and Roosevelt the Lieu- 
tenant Colonel of the mounted riflemen known as the Rough 
Riders and in June, Wood having been promoted after Las 
Guasimas, Roosevelt became Colonel of the 1st Volunteer 
Cavalry. In point of preparedness the War Department was 
found to be in far worse shape than the Navy Department. 
As Roosevelt put it, there were excellent men — soldiers of 
the best stamp — but on the other hand, when the Spanish 

[14] 



'War suddenly burst upon us "a number of inert, elderly 
captains and field officials were, much against their own 
wishes, suddenly pitchforked into the command of regi- 
ments, brigades, and even divisions and army corps. Often 
these failed painfully." There was no failure for the Rough 
Riders. They drilled most carefully. Roosevelt, with all 
his other labors, had managed in some way to serve for three 
years in the New York National Guard — and he knew some- 
thing of drill. It was his view that if the national guardsman 
realized that he had learned only five per cent, of his profes- 
sion, he had some advantage, but none if he thought he 
knew it all. In the army, Roosevelt, as always, worked in- 
defatigably. He was breveted for gallantry at Las Guasimas 
and Santiago. The brilliant exploits of the Rough Riders 
reached their climax in the battle of San Juan Hill on July 
1, 1898. In recommending Colonel Roosevelt for a Medal 
of Honor, Major General Sumner said : "Colonel Roosevelt 
by his example and fearlessness inspired his men, and both 
at Kettle Hill and the ridge known as San Juan he led his 
command in person. I was an eye-witness of Colonel Roose- 
velt's action." Later, it was his privilege to disclose the 
conditions about Santiago and arouse Washington to its 
duty. Roosevelt not only had the courage to lead his men 
in battle, — he also had the courage to assume responsibility 
for the public statement which was necessary to secure meas- 
ures for their protection from the disease and death to which 
they were exposed by official neglect. The Roosevelt letter 
and the officers' 'round robin,' also signed by him, had their 
effect. 

The war was soon over, and it had as one of its by- 
products the effect of throwing Theodore Roosevelt out of 
subordinate departments of administration into political ac- 
tivity of the first importance. It made him Governor of New 
York. He won his election by a comparatively narrow mar- 
gin, but the most extraordinary political developments have 
begun in narrow margins. As Governor, Roosevelt pursued 
his policy of combining idealism with efficiency. He worked 
in a difficult situation, but effectively. He secured the re- 
enactment of the Civil Service Reform law, the creation of 
a Tenement House Commission, various provisions for the 
safety of workers and the protection of women and children 

[15] 



in industry, laws against adulteration of foods, and the estab- 
lishment of a state hospital for those suffering from incipient 
tuberculosis. In the administration of the State's 'business, 
there was marked improvement, due to the better quaHty of 
his appointments. The passage of the Special Franchise Tax 
law was due to his insistence that special privileges should 
bear their proper burdens. He showed his capacity for wise 
party leadership when, with respect to this bill, he wrote in 
answer to Senator Piatt's remonstrance : "It seems to me that 
our attitude should be one of correcting the evils and thereby 
showing that whereas the Populists and Socialists, and others, 
do not really correct the evils at all, or else only do so at the 
expense of producing others in aggravated form; on the con- 
trary, we Republicans hold the just balance and set our- 
selves as resolutely against improper corporate influence on 
the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the 
other." He appreciated fully, w^hat was told him, that any 
applause he got "would be too evanescent for a moment's 
consideration" — that those who loudly approved would for- 
get the matter in a fortnight and that the powerful interests 
he opposed would never forget. But such suggestions only 
steeled the resolution of Roosevelt and the bill, on his urgent 
demand, was passed by the legislature. 

The nomination in 1900, b}- the Republican Convention, 
of Governor Roosevelt for the Vice-Presidency undoubtedly 
fitted into the plans of the New York leaders, who had no 
desire that he should succeed himself at Albany. But it was 
brought about, despite the opposition of the Governor him- 
self, because of the demand throughout the country which 
was the result of the success of his administration and his 
hold upon the popular imagination. By many of his friends 
his nomination was regarded as a grave mistake, as it was 
feared that it meant his political extinction. Of course, no 
extinction was possible to Roosevelt; he was destined for the 
Nation's highest office. "Men's lives are chains of chances 
and History their sum-" Within a few months, the Nation 
mourned the martyred McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt 
became President of the United States. 

Now, for the first time, he was in a place calling for the 
full play of his developed powers. No one knew the country 
better, no one could better voice its aspirations, no one had 

[i6] 



a more intimate acquaintance with the imperative require- 
ments of the time, no one had a more abounding vitality or 
could give a more ready and complete response to the vast 
demands of the Nation's leadership. He fully appreciated 
his responsibilities, but he met them without the weakness 
of dread. As he said, — "Life is a great adventure, and the 
worst of all fears is the fear of living." That fear he never 
knew. 

President Roosevelt stated that he would continue Mc- 
Kinley's policies. He asked all the members of the Cabinet 
to remain. He has told us, however, that his chief concern 
was not that of "either following or not following" in the foot- 
steps of his predecessor, but "in facing the new problems" 
that would arise. There was really no danger that his admin- 
istration, because of the circumstances of his succession, would 
lack an individual character. Roosevelt could not be other 
than himself, and he soon became the most fascinating figure 
in the country. 

When John Morley, at the end of 1904, was returning 
home from his visit to the United States, he was asked what 
had most impressed him. "Undoubtedly," he replied, "two 
things — the President and the Niagara Rapids." The Presi- 
dent dominated his party, and possessed the thought of the 
people everywhere. In 1904, his nomination to succeed him- 
self was assured. His opponents sought in vain to frame 
a satisfactory issue. There was only one issue, and that was 
Roosevelt himself, and on that issue he was triumphantlv elected. 
It would be impossible on this occasion even briefly to 
sketch the seven years and a half of President Roosevelt's 
administration, still less to do justice to his achievements. 
There were certain distinctive features, however, which may be 
noted. He surrounded himself with the strongest men and 
delighted in their friendship and counsel. He found no sac- 
rifice of leadership in the intimate association with the best 
minds of his day. He nourished his strength by such intimacy 
and, with all his eagerness and readiness, he welcomed the 
best advice he could get. It was characteristic of Roosevelt 
that his friends in every department of activity were the 
ablest, the keenest, the most expert, the most vital. To him 
democracy did not mean the triumph of the common-place 
or the rule of ignorance, but the best talent engaged in the 

[17] 



service of all. Hay, Root, Taft and Knox gave high distinc- 
tion to his Cabinet, while in every department he was con- 
stantly seeking to maintain enlightened policies and the high- 
est efficiency. 

In international affairs, with such Secretaries as Hay and 
Root, there was constantly displayed a rare sagacity and the 
Nation enjoyed a greatly enhanced prestige. President Roose- 
velt knew how to avoid difficulties as well as to overcome 
them, and the archives of diplomatic correspondence, and his 
personal notes to our Ambassadors, will in time disclose the 
extraordinary influence which he helpfully exerted. Every 
foreign Chancellery knew that he meant what he said, and 
that his words were important because they were the sure 
harbinger of deeds. With such a man, there was no doubt as 
to action and no temptation to carry things too far. The 
"big stick" was an assurance of peace. He dared, but not 
recklessly. And he always had the gift of humor. The story 
is told that when one expressed the hope that he would not 
embroil us in any foreign war, he said, "What, a war? With 
me cooped up in the White House? Never, gentlemen, never." 

The first case before the Hague Court was brought before 
it through his instrumentality, and this set the precedent 
for many others. The Alaska Boundary question was settled 
through the decision of a Joint Commission, removing, as 
he has well said, "the last obstacle to absolute agreement be- 
tween the two peoples." But his great service to the cause 
of peace was in his contribution to the settlement of the Russo- 
Japanese War in 1905. He conducted the preliminaries with 
consummate skill. On his invitation, the delegations of the 
two Nations met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Neither 
side got all it wanted; he felt that each side had as regards 
himself a feeling of injury, but this, as he told us, he did not 
resent. In appreciation of this service, he was awarded the 
Nobel Peace Prize. 

But from our standpoint, the action he had earlier taken 
in regard to the Panama Canal was of even greater importance. 
Reviewing the events which led to the recognition of the Re- 
public of Panama, he says in his autobiography : 

"No one connected with the American Government had 
any part in preparing, inciting, or encouraging the revolution, 
and except for the reports of our military and naval officers, 

[t81 



which I forwarded to Congress, no one connected with the 
Government had any previous knowledge concerning the pro- 
posed revolution, except such as was accessible to any person 
who read the newspapers and kept abreast of current ques- 
tions and current affairs. By the unanimous action of its peo- 
ple, and without the firing of a shot, the State of Panama 
declared themselves an independent republic The time for 
hesitation on our part had passed. * * ^ * ^very considera. 
tion of international morality and expediency, oi duty to the 
Panama people, and of satisfaction of our national interest 
and honor, bade us take immediate action. I recognized Pan- 
ama forthwith on behalf of the United States, and practiically 
all the countries of the world immediately followed suit. 
If as representing the American people, I had not acted pre- 
cisely as I did, I would have been an unfaithful or incompetent 

representative." . „^^^„ 

In this matter, the President acted on his own respon- 
sibility. But John Hay said: "The action of the President 
in the Panama matter is not only in the strictest accordance 
with justice and equity, and in line with all the best Precedents 
of our public policy, but it was the only course he could have 
taken in compliance with our treaty rights and obligations. 

President Roosevelt then devoted his energies to the work 
of construction. He took this enterprise of transcendent im- 
portance out of politics; he put it on an efficient basis under 
the most competent management. His was an administration 
of deeds, and its crowning achievement was the taking ot 
these measures to assure the building of the Panama Canal 

He also acted on his own responsibility in sending the fleet 
around the world. He knew that "neither the English nor the 
German authorities believed that it was possible to take a 
fleet of great battleships around the world " But his prime 
purpose ias "to impress the American people and this purpose 
was fully achieved." It established the popular belief m the 
American Navy, and if in the world war our Navy has demon- 
strated an efficiency unsurpassed, let us ,^0^ Gorget-while due 
credit is withheld from none-that naval efficiency is not pro- 
duced in a vear and that the feat of the past two years, whiph 
has been in large part the essential basis of tbe complete vic- 
tory of the cause of civilization, is directly due to the fore- 
sight and intelligent vigilance of Theodore Roosevelt. 

[19I 



When we turn to domestic affairs, we realize that Presi- 
dent Roosevelt came to national leadership at a time which 
needed his championship of the common welfare. It is diffi- 
cult now to think of the day when lawyers of ability and dis- 
tinction were asserting the unconstitutionality of the exercise 
by Congress, through an appropriate agency, of the rate mak- 
ing power in its regulation of inter-state commerce. The con- 
clusions then reached after strenuous contests, are now the 
most familiar postulates. For President Roosevelt, the com- 
merce power — till then but little used — was the instrumental- 
ity of an aroused opinion determined that the Republic should 
not be the victim of the opportunities it had created, and that 
greed, defying all control, should not make mockery of jus- 
tice. The record of accomplishment is impressive — especially 
as so much was essayed in a comparatively new field. The 
Hepburn bill as to railroad rates, the Pure Food bill, the Meat 
Inspection bill, the Employers' Liability bill, the establishment 
of the Bureau of Corporations, his trust prosecutions, illustrate 
his efforts for the public welfare against what he regarded as 
the serious evils in our national life. The public had found 
an undaunted champion, and his blows in their interest fell 
thick and fast. 

But he did not assail the foundations of society. He sought 
to purge, not to destroy ; to secure the essential conditions of 
progress, not to impair stability. It was never his notion 
that he must burn down the house to get rid of the rats. He 
always sought what he believed to be the "just middle." It 
was his endeavor to cut out the abuses of property and to 
hold the scales even between "corrupt and unscrupulous dema- 
gogues and corrupt and unscrupulous reactionaries." "To 
play the demagogue for purposes of self interest," said he, was 
"a cardinal sin against the people in a democracy." 

In the effort to secure a just solution of the problems 
of labor, he was indefatigable. To this end he used all his 
authority, legal and moral. It was the moral authority of 
his office that he exerted in the settlement of the anthracite 
coal strike in 1902. He was confronted, as Judge Gray said, 
with a crisis more grave and threatening than any that had 
occurred since the Civil War. Through the moral coercion 
of public opinion, directed by the President, an arbitration 
was agreed to and the dangers were averted. The Nation 

[20] 



never forgot this service or the way in which it was rendered. 
It was a service which only a man of rare courage and initia- 
tive could have performed. And for it, as Judge Gray said, 
President Roosevelt deserved unstinted praise. 

In his relation to labor, he w-as actuated by the profound 
belief that we need never suffer from a class war, that "em- 
ployers and employees have overwhelming interests in com- 
mon both as partners in industry and as citizens of the Repub- 
lic, and, that when these interests are apart, they can be 
adjusted by so altering our laws and their interpretation as 
to secure to all members of the community social and indus- 
trial justice." But he realized that in order that prosperity 
be passed around, it is necessary that "the prosperity shall 
exist," and that in order that labor shall receive its fair share 
in the division of reAvards, it is necessar}^ "that there shall be 
rewards to divide." 

Of first importance, in his judgment, was the conservation 
of our natural resources, which he emphasized by calling the 
conference of State Governors in May, 1908. The adminis- 
tration of the national forests, the conservation of mines, the 
improvement of waterways, and the development of water 
power, — all were subjects on which he thought deeply and to 
w^hich he constantly directed public attention for the purpose 
of promoting the common welfare and of avoiding the selfish 
exploitation of the Nation's riches. 

He thrived on the hard work of the presidency and left 
office in the full tide of health and energy. His relaxation 
was a long hunting trip in Africa, and a tour of Europe in 
which he made numerous addresses and received the most dis- 
tinguished honors. One of our Ambassadors, who was with 
him on the occasion of King Edward's funeral, has said that 
to see Theodore Roosevelt, the adequate democrat, furnish- 
ing the centre of interest as he discoursed in his free and 
entertaining manner to a delighted group of Kings, was to get 
a new vision of the essential worth of manhood which needed 
no trappings to establish its dignity. 

On his return to the United States, he soon resumed the 
political activity which he could no more dispense with than 
he could forego his daily food. Those who supposed that he 
could have remained out of politics must construct another 
Roosevelt to fit their fancv. To the true Roosevelt, the earn- 

[21] 



est expression of political views, and the endeavor to put 
them into effect, were inevitable. One occasion or another 
might be presented, but there could be no question that in re- 
sponse to the insistent demand of his own nature, no less 
than in answer to the call of others, he would be found in the 
political arena. 

Of the bitterness and animosities that were engendered, 
of the division that resulted, of the party catastrophe which 
followed, there is no need now to speak. We are deeply 
grateful that this period of the estrangement of old friends, 
of misunderstanding and strife, came to an end, and that in 
the common cause of liberty, which demanded the full strength 
of the Nation, a common patriotic endeavor restored the old- 
time amity, the wounds were healed, the party integrity re- 
stored, the friendships renewed, and the Republican Party 
once more rejoiced in the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. 

After the labors of campaigns a trip of exploration was 
taken in South America in the early part of 1914. The spirit 
of adventure was as indomitable as ever. The fires of youth 
were unquenched. But in his adventures, Roosevelt was 
always seeking not mere pleasure, but to add to the sum of 
knowledge. His achievements as an explorer were indubitable, 
but he did not seek to magnify them. As Steffansson tells 
us, Roosevelt thus expressed himself in a letter written shortly 
before his death : "I do not make any claim to the front rank 
among explorers * * * * but I do think that I can reasonably 
maintain that compared with other presidents, princes and 
prime ministers, I have done an unusual amount of useful 
work." 

But this trip of exploration, useful as it was from a scien- 
tific point of view, was a fateful trip for the explorer. He 
never fully recovered from the fever with which he was then 
attacked, and he was unable to free his system of the seeds 
of disease. 

Soon after his return to this country, the great war broke 
out. He was one of the first to appreciate its significance 
and our duty. His soul revolted at the wrongs of Belgium 
and he poured out the vials of his scorn upon the neutrality 
which ignored the call of humanity and sacrificed the self- 
respect of the American Republic. When the Lusitania was 
sunk, in Mav, 1915, he demanded action with "immediate 

[22] 



decision and vigor." "Centuries have passed," said he, "since 
any war vessel of a civilized power has shown such ruthless 
brutality toward non-combatants and especially toward women 
and children." None of the "old time pirates" had "com- 
mitted murder on so vast a scale." "We earn, as a Nation," 
he cried, "measureless scorn and contempt if we follow the 
lead of those who exalt peace above righteousness, if we heed 
the voices of those feeble folk who bleat to high heaven that 
there is peace, when there is no peace. For many months 
our Government has preserved between right and wrong a 
neutrality which would have excited the tremulous admira- 
tion of Pontius Pilate — the arch-typical neutral of all times." 
Theodore Roosevelt, to his lasting honor be it said, was right, 
and had his voice prevailed and had the country earlier shaken 
off its lethargy, millions of lives and countless treasure might 
have been spared. Better late than never, but it is costly to 
be late. 

Of inestimable value to his country had been his service 
in office, but now — a private citizen — he was to perform an 
even greater service. To a hesitant administration, and to a 
people lulled into a false security and lending ear to an un- 
worthy pacifism, he preached the gospel of preparedness. 
Throughout the country, journeyed this courageous apostle of 
right-thinking, having no credentials but those of his own 
conscience and patriotism, and by his pitiless invective he lit- 
erally compelled action. Back of all that was done was the 
pressure of the demand of Roosevelt. "For eighteen months," 
said he in the early part of 1916, "with this world-cyclone 
before our eyes, we as a nation have sat supine without pre- 
paring in any shape or way. It is an actual fact that there 
has not been one soldier, one rifle, one gun, one boat, added 
to the American Army or Navy so far, because of anything 
that has occurred in this war, and not the slightest step has 
yet been taken looking to the necessary preparedness. Such 
national short-sightedness, such national folly, is almost incon- 
ceivable." He denounced the proposed program as a make- 
believe program, as one entirely inadequate to our needs. "It 
is," he said, "a proposal not to do something effective imme- 
diately, but to do something entirely ineffective immediately 
and to trust that our lack will be made good in succeeding 
years." 

[23] 



He also demanded spiritual preparedness in a deepening 
sense of unity. He preached the gospel of undiluted and un- 
hyphenated Americanism. "The foreign born population of 
this country," said he, "must be an Americanized population. 
No other kind can fight the battles of America either in war 
or peace. It must talk the language of its native born fel- 
low citizens, it must possess American citizenship and Amer- 
ican ideals." "There is no such a thing as a hyphenated 
American who is a good American. The only man who is a 
good American is the man who is an American and nothing 
else." "I," he said, "I am straight United States." 

And when finally we could stand no longer the brutal 
assaults of Germany and declared that a state of war existed, 
he felt that his place was in that holiest of wars and he was 
ready to die fighting for his country. When he asked to be 
allowed to go to France, he had no thought of a return in 
glory. I well remember the night, shortly after the declara- 
tion of War, when at the close of a meeting at the Union 
League Club, he talked to a Uv\e company of his heart's 
wish. "I shall not return," he said, "my sons may not return, 
my grandchildren may be left alone" — and no one could doubt 
that he meant what he said. But the greatest desire of his 
life was denied him. We can but faintly imagine the measure 
of his disappointment, but we may conjecture that it had no 
small share in hastening the final break-down. His country 
at war, and Roosevelt at home ! That was the crudest blow 
that fate could deal him. 

But if he could not fight for liberty and humanity on 
the Western Front, he could fight with pen and voice at home. 
There was not a moment lost. With increasing vigor he de- 
manded adequate forces, adequate equipment, speed and effi- 
ciency. His lash knew no mercy, but it was a necessary lash. 
As it was, we were just in time. How late we should have 
been had it not been for Roosevelt, God only knows ! But 
who can doubt the value of the service of that insistent de- 
mand in making it possible that we should arrive at the 
Front, in force, in time to make the last great German drive 
a failure? He quickened the national consciousness: he de- 
veloped the sense of unity, and when the country awoke 
he was the natural leader of an aroused America. His price- 
less service at home made all the world his debtor. If America 

[24] 



by its aid at the critical moment made victory possible, it was 
the spur of Roosevelt that assured that aid, and while we 
acclaim the splendid service of officers and men, the pride of 
our Army and Navy, and of the host of willing workers, and 
are gratified at the vast achievements of the Nation, let it 
not be forgotten that yonder in his last resting place in 
Oyster Bay lies our greatest hero of the War. He incarnated 
the spirit of America and when he passed away, and contro- 
versy was no more and enemies were silenced, the country 
with one voice paid its tribute to the patriot who, without 
office or commission, had supplied the leadership which had 
not faltered or erred, and had fought to maintain the Nation's 
honor. 

It is with pleasure that we remember the family life 
of this stout-hearted American. Worthy in public life, he 
dignified the American home. He spoke of his father as 
the best man he had ever known, and the spirit of his father's 
house blessed his own. An ideal husband and father, his 
home was the beautiful abode of all that was worthy and 
true. He transmitted his own courage to his four sons, and 
all of his sons won distinction at the Front. The last sacrifice 
for his country which his father longed to make in the battle 
for liberty his son Quentin did make, and in his heroic death 
achieved an imperishable honor of his own. 

It is small wonder that such a career as that of Theodore 
Roosevelt has a lasting fascination for young men. There 
was nothing sordid or commonplace or unclean to mar it. 
His courage, steadfastness and faith, his deeds of daring, his 
physical prowess, his resourcefulness, his exploits as a hunter 
and explorer, his intellectual keenness, his personal charm, 
and his dominating patriotic motive, make their irresistible 
appeal, and in the shaping of the ideals of the American youth 
for generations to come his most important service is yet to 
be rendered. 

He left us when we could ill afford to spare him. Against 
all that tended to destroy our Government, against all that 
is sinister and corrupt, against tyranny of every sort, against 
the exploitation of the weak and all iniustice. against class 
hatred and class pride, against the enfeebling influence of 
pacifism, against the impractical schemes of visionaries, 
against every tendencv to anarchv and Bolshevism, Theodore 

[25I' 



Roosevelt would have led the fight with his invincible common 
sense and his sound Americanism. 

In the coming struggle we can win the victory only by 
heeding his repeated injunction: 

"All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, 
no matter in what way we may severally worship our Creator, 
must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America for the 
elimination of race and religious prejudice. We must stand 
for a reign of equal justice to both big and small. We must 
insist on the maintenance of the American standard of living. 
We must stand for an adequate national control which shall 
secure a better training of our young men in time of peace, 
both for the work of peace and for the work of war. We 
must direct every national resource, material and spiritual, 
to the path not of shirking difficulties, but of training our 
people to overcome difficulties. Our aim must be, not to 
make life easy and soft, not to soften soul and body, but to 
fit us in virile fashion to do a great work for all mankind. 
* * * In our relations with the outside world we must abhor 
wrong-doing, and disdain to commit it, and we must no less 
disdain the base spirit which tamely submits to wrong-doing. 
Finally and most important of all, we must strive for the 
establishment within our own borders of that stern and lofty 
standard of personal and public morality which shall guar- 
antee to each man his rights, and which shall insist in return 
upon the whole performance by each man of his duty both 
to his neighbor and to the great Nation whose flag must 
symbolize in the future as it has symbolized in the past the 
highest hopes of all mankind." 



[26 J 



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